I want to point out for the taxes section, I mistakenly applied our situation to what the „norm“ is in Germany. We fill out our tax declaration forms on the schedule I described, but NOT every German will do this, but also, many Germans would! It will depend on if they are doing this on their own, if they are using a tax advisor, if they asked for extensions or not, etc. This is all case-to-case dependent and some may fill these forms out earlier like on the US schedule and some may even do it up to 4 years after a year. My apologies for the misleading generalization and not being much more specific on all the different possibilities outside of what we do and our personal culture Shock in this regard!

Since we Germans think of income in monthly periods there is a joke like "How sad that there is so much month left at the end of the money." 😄

CPA here, both in the US and in Germany. I am not sure where you got the information about when taxes (and tax returns) are due. In Germany, you file your taxes by September of the following year. The time to pay is longer than in the US, but the filing period is very similar.Also, almost every country, not just the USA, wants their citizens to file taxes in their home country and the residence country. To avoid double taxation, there are Doppelbesteuerungsabkommen (double taxation treaties) between a lot of countries, for purposes of income tax, inheritance tax, and others. I don't know how your income structure is but in the US there is a foreign income exclusion of $112K for 2022. I suggest you talk to a CPA/Steuerberater about your specific situation.

I haven't used my card in over 10 years and I pay EVERYTHING in cash. I love my freedom and the ease of using cash. It's such a good feeling of freedom to pay in cash.

On the monthly based utility payments: There are over 40 Million households in Germany, and so the electric companies would have to write over 40 Million invoices per month, the same for water companies and over 50% of the households also the gas companies. Thats 12 times the effort these companies have today. Besides that does all US-houses already have remote accessible meters for these utilities?

I live in Berlin and there's a very nice little cafe in my neighbourhood that doesn't offer card payment because for that they'd need to pay a fee and to afford that, they'd have to raise their prices and they want to keep their food affordable.

One Thing why germany does these "constant" payments for Utilties is actually understandable. You have a constant fee you can account for and that will never change. Especially if you live paycheck to paycheck having consistent stuff to pay that isn't changing is a life saver because you can actually PLAN for them. And paying slightly to much is also a good thing because HEY I GET MONEY BACK!!!! (Kinda like the 13th paycheck is used in the USA to pay bills that you couldn't afford otherwise) So having a constant rate is actually benefitial to you overall. It has a lot of positives that you wouldn't think of if you have to much money in your bank :)

I kind of missed one main difference about money which is that everyone in Germany does money transfers to pay their bills or pay back a friend or giving support to a child at university etc. In the US, people still send cheques all the time (which is much more ridiculous than the love for cash in Germany, I think, as it takes so much more time and costs postage), and pretty much only wages are transfered directly to a bank account. That's why newer forms of money transfer like Apple Pay and Paypal are so much more popular in the US, since in Germany you basically don't really need them as the "Überweisung" has always been (and still is) cheap and easy. Another major difference: in the US, credit cards are really used as a form of getting credit by a lot of people, especially poorer ones. I have met Americans who accumulated thousands and thousands of Dollars of debt on dozens of credit cards, and they still get sent those offers in the mail all the time. Then they try to refinance some of them, but still they are paying the ridiculous high interest rates (some of which would be illegally high in Germany), and never get to grips with their debts. In Germany, they are lots of people with too much debt too, of course, but this is rarely a result of credit cards (I don't think I have ever met a German with more than two credit cards...), but of "dispo" overdraft credits on the bank account, or by "buy now, pay later" rate-pay schemes.

My feedback on the heating bill: I prefer knowing every month exactly how much I need to pay, as I am on a low income. I need to know exactly how much is going off of my account. Fluctuations would be really bad as it would / could seriously mess with my grocery-money.

the utility system in Germany can a bit annoying but the feeling of receiving an unexpected refund is just great :D + plus you dont have to care if its winter or summer, so its actually quite easy to plan your finances over the year. But I have to admit, being able to see a number dropping when saving electricity or gas could make a good motivation for doing so :D

Here in Canada our utility companies offer the choice to go on "budget billing" as described in the video, or pay the actual amounts monthly. Most people I know opt for the budget billing which evens out the payments so there is no shock if the usage is extra high once in a while. Most plans even out and recalculate a new monthly amount twice a year, or once a year as mentioned is done in Germany.

There are two jokes about payment in Germany: - "My wallet is from onion-leather. I always have to cry, when I open it." - "At the end of the money is much of month left."

Hi Donnie, I am working on my 2022 German taxes now and also my 2022 US Taxes. If you are working with a German Tax advisor, they can apply some extensions that are only available to them, basically allowing you to file a year later. I would say that the vast majority of Germany pay their taxes like in the US. It’s strange that even though Americans get paid more often, the amount of consumer cedit and credit card debt is much higher. Algebra or Chemistry were my least favorite subjects.

This is focused on a specific good, but in germany, book prices are fixed, in that they cost the same at each store, however a new edition may change the price.

the benefit of that wacky utilities system is the easier monthly planability. you can slightly overestimate your consumption along the year and that keeps your regular costs constant and allows you to bother less with your actual balance as long as you stay within your disposable income, and since you overestimated you're going to get something back which feels good xD

This might be unique, but my experience with utilities was that when I'm paying too much I get money back and if I underpaid they just divide the amount I owe by 12 and add it onto the next years payments. I quite like that as I it never fell unto me to do something.

I would say the "talk about income"-taboo depends highly on the age of the person you're asking. More and more people are ready to talk about their income, it's mostly the employers and the older people that don't want you to talk about it. Because you could find out that your colleague that does the same work as you do gets a higher pay than you. Or you do more work / have more duties at work and get the same pay as someone with less work. Talking about income with colleagues should get more and more a norm in all honesty, since it promotes pay equality.

Also ich zahle meine Steuern monatlich im laufenden Jahr (werden durch den Arbeitgeber direkt abgeführt) und mache jetzt in 2023 die Steuererklärung für 2022, von der ich mir dann eine Rückerstattung erwarte. Ich glaube, man sollte bis Ende Juli die Erklärung abgeben, kann aber auch eine Fristverlängerung beantragen.

I remember the German heating company asking me how much I wanted to pay. I was flabbergasted. I had not heard of estimated payments. It did work out quite well and made for easier budgeting. But at first it was quite confusing. “What do you mean, how much do I want to pay?” How about as little as possible!

A few decades ago, in Germany, it was usual to pay the wages each week in cash. Each Friday, you went to the company's cashier and got your money in a paper envelope, called "Lohntüte" (salary bag). When I as a pupil was working during the school vacation, I still got my pay that way. I actually had no "least favorable subject" in school, at least not consistently. Maybe Indoctrination - pardon! - Staatsbürgerkunde (Civics), as I am from East Germany.

6:47 the tax stuff about Germany isn’t entirely correct. Let’s talk about the most common employment related tax: Income tax. Employees will pay that every month they get their salary. It’s automatically deducted from the monthly gross salary along with social security contributions and health insurance, because the employer also has to pay a share of the contributions. So income tax is paid monthly. As a regular employee you can then get a part of your taxes back the year after, so for example I regularly do my tax return declaration for the previous year in March. I can enter details like private pension fund, transit cost from home to work or for example work or university related spendings that the government allows you to deduct from your taxes. But not when you pay them, as I said you need to hand in a form after that year. And then it takes about 3 weeks and you’ll get some money back, they’ll directly transfer it to your bank account. If you’re self employed however that’s a whole different story, then you usually have to pay taxes upfront with estimate income figures. So the statement “the Germans pay their taxes the year after” isn’t true, we pay income tax monthly and don’t have to do any tax return declaration or tax declaration unless we run a business or earn money from work besides our main employment. In all other cases (so the absolute majority) you don’t have to hand in that form - but that also means you won’t get anything back obviously ;)

Creditcard is much more expensive to accept. You dont need a creditcard in Europe. Debitcard is more than enough.

Least favourite subject in school was PE until I was 16 and biology afterwards. I think it depends highly on where you go, if you use cash or card. I could go long time without using cash, if I only shop once a week, never visit an Imbiss/Dönerladen or a bakery. Nearly everywhere I go and pay above 10 Euro I can use my (debit-)card. Credit cards are not that often used because of the fees, which a debit card normally does not have, not only is it an extra cost for the one paying but also for the store owner. The monthly fixed amount is something that can give you a satisfying feeling, if you decide to save money by reducing heating or elictricity and get a nice amount back at the end of the year and if it is due at the end of the year, you have extra money for Christmas.

If we all had fast internet, our gas, water and electricity bills could also be monthly depending on usage, because digital meters are already installed. But as Angela Merkel once famously said, the Internet is „Neuland“. 😉 I also carry cash on me, but I use my debit card all the time in stores or at the groceries. Even at a bakery I pay with card for my coffee to go and my pretzel, because since the pandemic touchless payment was preferred and is still possible. I really only use cash when paying at a parking lot or when I order food from a restaurant by telephone.

About card payments: you should keep in mind, that every business owner has to pay service fees to provide the possibility of card payment for their customers. and specially the transaction fees for every single payment can vary a lot depending on the card the customer is using, with credit cards being far on the high end.

Here's a tip on the utility bills (especially power, to some extent gas), though it is extra work, hence why few people do it: Read your own power meter every month and calculate what your price would be for that month based on the agreed kWh price plus service fee. If you notice you are using more than the estimate, start paying the extra amount. If you notice you are regularly using significantly less, tell the power company you want to lower your "Abschlag" and they will usually oblige.

You should always have at least 3 months of pay immediately available for emergencies. That doesn’t change, if you are poor, unless the paycheque to paycheque thing is foreseeable to be temporary. If it isn’t, you can’t really spend more than it in the long term anyway. Germans are way less likely to get a loan for pretty much anything other than houses, and even for that stuff like Bausparen exists to significantly save up for a house, rather than just mortgage the whole thing outright.

Here in the U.S. there was a big push by the credit card companies to sell us on using cards, whether credit or debit, because they make money when cards are used. Until fairly recently businesses required a minimum purchase of $10 or $20 in order to use a card because the per transaction fees were too much for smaller amounts.

One week ago, in one of the biggest Supermarkets of my hometown Karlsruhe had a big Computerproblem, so no cards could be read. I think, even in the US or in Scandinavia can occur, so it's allways good to have enough cash as a plan B with you. Additional, a lot, especially older, people tend to feel to have more control over their life, if they have something, they can physically count.

The true reason, why we have to pay in cash at so many places is simply cost. The card readers and all around it costs the host about 500 € a month. Small shops cannot or will not afford it, therefore cash. For some it is also the paperwork that comes with it. And last but not least. If you pay via credit card, no problem. If you pay via bank account card you can revoke the transaction within 14 days. So, the shops needs to run after you and often this doesn't work. Cash in your pocket cannot be revoked. ^^

there is a significant difference between "Verdienst" and "Einkommen" - you usually deserve more than what you have as income ...

I find what you said about taxes strange. As a German, I always do my tax for the previous year (2022) and not before the previous year (2021). Really weird.

what i like doing when it comes to carry cash is simple, and it actually helps spending less: at the beginning of the month, or rather when you get your payment i simply withdraw 50 - 100€ and treat that like its all i have. i dont withdraw anything or use my card for anything else than online payments. when its then gone at some point, i do the same again. and i usually dont have to worry that i dont have enough since i rarely use the card. only time i have to be careful is when i want to spend my saved money on something more expensive once. with that i usually have much money left at the end of the month. edit: that means again, unless i plan on buying something thats necessary and more expensive than whats left of the 50 in my pocket, i actually treat it like its all i have. meaning, i buy the cheapest or less of what i would buy usually. sometimes i even forget that i still have money on my bank, and its always a good feeling remembering that you still have all of the rest, untouched. so you can just withdraw again.

wonderful differences you pointed out in your videos. Living in the US I got so used to getting paid twice a month!

Something you've stated previously stated, but didn't reiterate here: in Germany, the Sales Tax is part of the number on the price tag, and not added at the checkout :)

Considering that most expenses are usually monthly (rent, energy, gas, etc), it makes sense to also calculate your salary monthly. Also, I haven't touched cash in about 5 years now, smartphone payments everywhere.

Side note - here in NYC, ConEdison and PSEG (South Queens) you get a bill AFTER the usage. You do not pay upfront. But they offer a similar model as Germany, it is called "balanced billing" by just withdrawing the same estimated account every month.

I much prefer to pay the avegrage amount each month for utilities, then paying the actual emount each month, especialyl for heating. Heat ussage doesnt vary that much between year to year, but obviously varies wildly during the year, so I would have to save money in the summer, or be very frugal in the the winter, if I had to pay 0€ in the sumemr and liek 400€ in the winter per month.

I think the "we only accept cash" thing depends a lot on what you typically do/buy and maybe also a bit on the region. I live in Bavaria and a few years ago, I started almost exclusively paying with my phone and I can't really remember the last time a place didn't accept that. Really the only place that comes to mind are "Volksfest" booths (at least I think they still generally only accept cash but it has been half a year since I've been to one so I can't actually remember for sure). But I guess I don't really buy stuff at similar places which might explain why I basically never have issues with it. Even places like our local barber or small restaurants basically all accept it nowadays, although they indeed sometimes don't like credit cards (though paying with a debit card via my phone still works).

Regarding cash is king: An additional reason for now card places is not having to raise prices of their products due to the prices the companies have to pay for the service of being able to take cards. Sometimes you will see also minimum prices until they would accept cards, or only bank cards (not even a Master Card or Visa that work as debit cards), and rarely you also see surcharges when you pay by card.

Over here in Switzerland we are paying the 2023 taxes in 2023. The tax form needs to be filled in in spring and at the beginning of the next year we get an additional bill to adjust the amount paid for concluding the previous year. If you had major changes in your salary you end up with big differences at the end of the year.

Credit cards are common in sparsely populated areas; in Europe for example in Norway and Sweden. If the next bank branch is far away the shop owners prefer to bear the CC fees. Some time ago it was a widespread practice in Germany to threaten a shop owner with paying via credit card unless he agreed to a rebate of some percent for paying cash, with which he was better off. Meanwhile the CC organisations have lowered their fees to around 2%. Still much more than 0.3% for EC cards.

In Germany, tax and social insurance are automatically withheld from the gross monthly income and only the net amount is paid out. Every year, above a certain income, you have to make a tax return for the tax office, a tax return is made so that you may get something back or - in the case of additional income - have to pay later. If this return is made by the taxpayer himself, it must be made for the previous year. This declaration can only be made a year later (as indicated in the video) if a tax advisor makes the declaration.

Regarding the utilities: Water and Gas - if you are still crazy enough to go with gas - will indeed cost you a lump sum, as the meters are always analog and no one cares giving the utilities companies monthly readouts. Meters over here are always inside the buildings - usually in a room called HWR (Hauswirtschaftsraum). For electricity on the other hand you have the option for a digital meter with automatic readouts to be send to the utility company. This makes it possible to either get monthly readouts, or hourly. I for example use hourly readouts and therefore pay highly accurate monthly bills and not get anything back at the end of the year, nor pay extra. A step further still would be smart meters that allow you to turn off certain appliances based on current electricity prices thresholds you don't wanna cross.

I haven't tried it, but in theory my supplier for electricity would let me set the monthly amount at any time online. So I could probably monitor my own use and adjust the monthly payments accordingly.

Credit Card Payment is extremly expensive for shops, as the companies for Master Card, Visa, ... etc. charge depending on the kind of store from about 2% of the sum for dicounters and grocery stores up to more than 10% for night clubs. For Debit Cards this is much cheaper.

I traveled around the USA without a functioning credit card. Had plenty of cash, but was often in dire straits because there were so many transactions that can be done ONLY with a credit card...

When it comes to financial planning, here in Switzerland we have a special challenge: In Germany or the UK (Having never worked in the US, I don't know, how they handle this), when you get your salary, a certain part of your income is retained for taxes and at the beginning of the next fiscal year, you do your tax return, and usually you get something back, or sometimes you get an invoice from the Inland Revenue. Not so in Switzerland: Unless you're rather new in the country, you get your salary in full (with only pension deductions taken out). Once the year is over, you do your tax declaration, and get your final bill and pay it in full, so better be sure, you have that money ready, when the bill arrives! What you can do, is to make quarterly discretionary pre-payments (typically 25% of your previous yearly total tax amount). Very much like the utility bills in Germany.

I used to have supermarket in my city that only offered payment with card starting at a certain amount, i think it was 10€ (during covid this changed) but this shows a reason why so many shops in Germany don't like to offer payment with plastic, and the reason is, that they have to pay to be able to offer payment with card. So for little shops like bakeries this isn't feasible because of mostly small amounts crossing the counter. I never, and still don't like math!

In addition some companies pay you monthly in advance 3rd 4th day of the month, other pay at the end 30th day. I do not understand the problem of monthly paying ? How do you pay your appartement in US, bi-weekly? Regarding payment of gas, electricity etc. - Your income is most probably the same every month, so it makes sense to pay as well other things equally per month. Not paying 100€ in summer for gas and 500€ during winter heating period. With that all problems are gone, every month the same amount of money for your month 😇

as one of the Germans that mostly pays with his card even pre Covid I have to say it is possible to do so. But with one big condition attached to that. That is "you have to know that you can pay with your card at those places. So as a rule if its a place I've been bevor i only take my card with me. But if I´ve never been there i take some cash just to be sure.

I still remember my US vacations in the 90s, it was still common there. I had a credit card and couldn't pay anywhere with it. I always had to get cash because signs everywhere said "cash only". I found that annoying. But it seems to have turned around completely. I always have about 50-100 euros in my wallet, but that lasts for months. I actually only pay by card here. Always with a card, whether in the supermarket, at the gas station or in a restaurant. Perhaps in a bakery, when i buy only one thing, i take cash.

In Germany you don't have to do a tax declaration if you have a regular job. Tax declaraction is only required if have property, extensive savings ... but it is recomandable to do so because you usually get some money back.

I have been visiting Germany for over 40 years. I noticed that in the last few years their attitude towards card payment has changed drastically, exactly like in my country of Hungary. Before the pandemic hardly anyone paid with a card but now far more people are using it. Of course, during the pandemic people were encouraged to use contactless payment for safety reason and now they are stuck with it. Also it seems that during the last few years contactless terminals appeared in shops everywhere, so paying with a card is faster than with cash. The other extreme is Holland where I had trouble finding food vendors who accepted cash. Everyone wanted only card payments even for a few Euro purchases.

I just looked at my bank account, so far this year I've only withdrawn 40€ in cash. Maybe I still had another 20€ or so left over from Christmas presents, but that's it. The only thing I regularly pay in cash are the little coins I need for the washer and dryer in the basement, but that's just because the store next door sells them for our landlord, so it's a separate register where they calculate by hand and I pay by cash. I would say you can get pretty far without cash these days.

RQotW: physics. It costs small shop owners money to take credit card payments. I too found it strange, that unlike in the USA, where one payed for what one had used in utilities, one had to pay an estimated amount every month. One gets used to it, and it is easy to set aside monthly costs. AND I also prefer to pay cash for smaller items, ( under €50) and agree with the reasons Germans give for their preference to use cash.

My job does twice per month. Nice compromise, I think. Predictable, but if you do have financial worries, you don't have to wait for weeks.

"Talking about income" - there is a huge difference also in Germany if you are talking about your monthly or yearly income. Many tariffs (mainly negotiated by unions) include other benefits - like "Urlaubsgeld" and "Weihnachtsgeld". In some areas of the market that "Weihnachtsgeld" alone is about a monthly wage! So if somebody negotiates your future salary you should also take in account (or: ask for) that benefits. In younger days I had a job that paid 3600 plus benefits . Then I was offered a 5000 all over job. The yearly income did not differ as much as it sounds on the monthly basis.

As far as utilities go there was always a choice between pay fir the total usage for every month or go on equal payment a month and wait for your final bill usually in the summer. I guess it depends how tight yoyr monthly budge us what plan one prefers.

Transaction fees for the seller are much higher with credit cards than with debit cards - and also quite a bit higher than in the US or in France.

Difference 2 : What is secure is your monthly pay, not your yearly pay. Yearly income include bonus pay, xmas and vacation pay etc. Bonus, xmas and vacation pay is not a fixed sum. At the end it adds to your yearly pay , but it is not a secure income. If you don't reach the goals for your bonus your bonus pay will change. Same in some companies with xmas and vacation pay - it's something some employer pay depending on the companies health. Maybe in a bad year you get only 50€ and in a good year something like a 13th monthly pay. For example if you earn 1000€ a month you get 12000€, if your bonus is 5000€ you get 17000€ in that year, but if you don't reach the goal your bonus can be much less than the 5000€ and your yearly income will be something between 12000 and 17000€. You can only be sure that you have the 1000€ a month to pay your bills, everything else that adds to your yearly income is not secure and it can always happen that you will not get it. Another major difference is German income is netto, not brutto like in the US. If someone say he earns 1000€ it's a difference if it's netto or brutto. Netto is your income minus taxes and minus public insurances (unemployment, health etc.). Most Germans will talk about what they have monthly available and that is netto. Also you are wrong about when we pay taxes - you pay taxes every month in advance and in the year you earn the money. Depending on your tax class your monthly income income is reduced by a defined amount of money. Class 1 for singles, class2 singles with kids, class three to five married (a couple you can choose a combination that must add to 8 if both work) And class 6 is for a second income. Your brutto income is reduced by : a) income tax (depending on tax class) b) church tax 8-9% (if you are a member of church) c) health insurance 7.3% d) retirement insurance 18.6% (income over 7100€/month is free) e) long term care insurance 3.05% f) unemployment insurance 2.5% (income over 7100€/month is free) Because they use charts in the companies for the taxes etc. it can be you paid to much money or to little. And for that you can do the tax return - and most do this the following year meaning in 2022 for 2021, but you are allowed to delay until 2023 for 2021. And not everyone has to do a tax return, self employed have to and couples have to if they choose a class 3 + class 5 combination as a couple. Class 4 + class 4 or when only one is employed they don't have to. But for most people it's an advantage to do a tax return because everyone has a tax free amount and you can reduce your tax with other things, too.

@10:52 It is freedom and privacy. Nobody can track your purchase behavior and control your ability to make a purchase, what a social credit system based on CBDCs could accomplish.

does that mean that in the US you have the pay your utility every month? Seems a lot of micro management to me. I prefer to deal with it every year and don't have to worry weather or not I've payed for it/got the bill, etc... The less time I want to spend for things like that, the better.

For our wedding anniversary this month we went to our local greek restaurant and I tried to convince the owner to start accepting cards. I told him I'd happily pay a little more for the food if we could just have that convenience. He explained to me that the Germans will not happily pay more so that's it. Every time we want to eat at a restaurant we have to go to the bank first. (And try to get parking at the bank.) At least restaurants are not filled with cigarette smoke anymore. My least favorite classes at the University were Statistics and Phonology. And Calculus - I needed a tutor.

Least favourite subject in school: Art. I just wasn't able to draw people or animals. Everything where you could use a ruler like houses was quite ok, but in general art was a nightmare, especially as I never understood why I schould do that.

i've talked with my inner circle about my income regularly .. all my exes, family, some friends. but with co workers i talk about it theoretically not my actual income because i tend to be the best payed colleague and i don't want to create an uproar or envy or stuff.. i talk honestly with my colleagues, tell them what i think is reasonable for them to expect according to what i experience how good of a job they do.

Getting paid monthly was definitely a bit of an adjustment for us, mostly because of how tight things were for a few months after we moved. On the whole though, it does eliminate the problem of two paycheque months vs three paycheque months. Incidentally, I do know that Starkey in Minnesota pays their employees weekly, although I don't know how common this is elsewhere in the US, or if they still do it. My least favourite subject in high school was probably PE, although I wasn't much of a fan of either art or the creative writing class I was required to take (a result of some strangeness in the Ontario school system at the time)

With the utility bill I like it the german way. When I recieve the letter with the money I got back (or bill) I always call the company that I want to pay more than I have to, so ant the end I alway get a lot of money back

I think a big factor in the "once a month payment" is general public services; If getting sick eats your whole budget for the next two weeks and might require you to get a credit from somewhere you are somwhat in between a rock and a hard place, wich is not a thing in germany. Yeah, sure, germans pay more for healthcare, but this is a rather fixed number, so it is actualy a lot easyer to plan with the money that you get on your bank-account, as random misshaps like geting sick or unemployed wont turn your spending-plan upside down. Might make a dent for sure, but not a catastrophic one.

9:30 This is so, that you don't have to worry, that you have to overpay, like paying 200€ more, than you expected.

American here from St. Louis, Missouri, one of our local electric companies actually has an optional system to pay for electricity like what you are describing in Germany. They call it Budget Billing. They make a rough estimate of what they think you’ll use for the whole year, divide by 12, and that’s your monthly payment. But they don’t give you a refund, they just apply it to your next year if you’re over and going to continue using their service. My first year in my apartment here, they over-charged me so much, the next year they told me to stop paying until they sent me another bill and I only had to pay for 6 months 😂

Regarding card payments. Yes, it's less accepted in Germany. But overall in Europe, credit cards are less common, not only in Germany. Most countries prefer some kind of debit card where the money gets directly taken from your bank account.

I don't mind telling people my salary. It helps for anybody who starts a new job and maybe has the opportunity to negotiate, levelling out that playing field (because the employers definitely have their stats). Even then, I have only ever been in jobs where my salary is (in principle) public anyway, since it's just a pre-defined value on state/government-published tables, with no negotiation at all.

I started the month with 20€ in cash in my wallet, it's now 5€. Since 2020 I switched from using cash to banking card, note, not the credit card. Credit/debit card is for holidays only! My least favorite subjects in school were French (sadly) Sports and Religion.

i am confused about what you said about taxes in Germany... usually you have to have made your Steuererklärung until August of the next year (if you are part of the Lohnsteuerhilfeverein or use the service of a tax consultant you have time till October) . So last year (2022) i did the Steuererklärung for 2021 and now I am about to do the Steuererklärung for 2022. So what do you mean by you are just now doing your taxes for 2021?

When you just start at a company, many offer you the option to pay you out a part of your salary/wage after the first two weeks, because many people do indeed start a job with next to nothing as a cushion after multiple months of joblessness or after finishing their education. It can help especially when starting at the new job required you to move to another city and pay for a motel or rent deposit to live there. I do tell how much I make if I get asked. But I do feel uncomfortable with that if the person asking me is a close non-family one. Like a candidate for dating? It already happened twice that the person suddenly expected me to pay for anything and everything they ever wanted and could never get because they lived on some permanent government benefits. Not a good situation for anyone involved.

One small correction, only salaried professionals are paid bi-weekly in the US. The vast majority of non-professionals are paid weekly. If I remember from my days in HR back then, there are three pay modalities in the US: weekly, bi-weekly and bi-monthly. 1. Weekly: mostly non-college educated workers, paid every week, i.e. 52 times a year 2. Bi-weekly: mostly college educated professionals, paid every two weeks, i.e. 26 times a year 3. Bi-monthly: mostly company executives, paid twice a month (usually on the 1st and 15th), i.e. 24 times a year It also took me quite a while to get used to only being paid once a month after moving to Austria. For the first year or so I was constantly running out of money by the middle of the month because I still had that US mindset of being paid every week or every two weeks. I've gotten used to it by now however, owing more to necessity than choice, and can now balance my monthly expenditures like a good Austrian 🙂

Yes, we are rolling oir eyes. 😂

I'm glad that I can pay with card at some bakeries now. I remember when I was at a butcher's and half through my order I asked them : 'wait, you accept debit cards, right?' And the nice lady said: 'no, sorry. Cash only' And luckily there was an ATM right across the stree.

having a fixed price for gas/water/electricity is good for planning. families with a low income know what they have to put aside to pay the bill.. They will struggle more if the bill varies from month to month. So, I with a low income actually appreciate this system. I have a german debit card (EC Karte) and a Amex Card...but to be completly honest,i just got the amex card because i got payback points for it... I rarely use it. When i startet to work (mid 90ties ) everybody got a paycheck. I was told they do so because every bank has a different runtime, meaning, even though the company transfers the money to their workers at the same day due to the different banking systems it will arrive on different days.. So every month i went, proud as hell, to my bank to deposit the money from the check to my account which took 3-4 workdays.

Gas and electricity: Actually, if your final bill is the same as the monthly "Abschlagszahlung" it is perfect. Then your monthly payment is 1/12 of the annual bill. You have not overpayed and given them an interest free credit.

My least favorite subject at school was math... but mostly because of the math teachers I had. Having grown up with it, I find the concept of getting your full salary at the beginning of the month normal. However, I also see the advantages of the American method, as I used to receive "Kindergeld" in the middle of the month. It was nice to know that some money would come again, after all running costs were debited 😁. The "cash is king" thing: I personally pay almost exclusively by card. My data is available everywhere anyway. But I know a lot of people, especially my age (in their 50s), who do online banking, but use cash almost exclusively when shopping. However, most are not necessarily concerned about “their data” being used without their knowledge, but because they have a better overview of how much money they are spending. I don't quite understand why, because since I pay almost exclusively by card, I have a much better overview of my finances. From a "German point of view" I assume, that credit cards only make sense if you travel abroad a lot. So if you're mostly stay in Germany, you're more likely to only have a debit card, with which you can easily pay with and also has no extra costs. However, I think that over time, banks will phase out the debit card and replace it with different types of credit cards... based on the needs/preferences of the customer.

There are germans who only pay with card. Problem is, that their friends who they go out with allways have to pay for them, because "Oh sorry, i hve no cash on me." I have a friend with whom we were more than once in the same restaurant and he did thi gain and again. Until another friend said to him on the way to that place "Oh look, there is an ATM, shouldn`t you withdraw some cash rhis time? And take some more, because i guess you have to pay for all of us this time."

Since Covid, card payments have increased sharply, but now we even hear from younger people that they prefer to pay with cash again. And there's a reason for that, too. With constant card payments, many people quickly lose track of their finances. 2€ here, 4€ there, 30€ there... And if you do not earn very well, you look at some point startled on the account statement and realize that you have to limit yourself extremely, if you still want to get through the month. That can't really happen to you with cash. You withdraw the money for the week and can only spend what you have. It's much easier to get into debt with credit cards than it is to see how much money you have left in your wallet.

I am absolutely unable to live from paycheque ro paycheque, but it probably would not get better by spreading the pay out. At least hustling is always an option.

The cash things kinda seems to a generational thing. I know several young people who sometimes do not even carry cash anymore. But my parents basicly pay cash only, unless they can not. I carry some cash with me (because things liek parking meters or vending machines often do need it) but i pay with card most of the time.

How does the gas/power/… companies know the meter data, did they sent someone every month or can they read it remotly?

If you pay the bills for gas, electricity, municipality, in the same amount, you can plan your income better and won't be surprised if it hits you in a month, especially if your income matches your expenses.

I did not like math or chemistry. Love your channel. Used to live in Spangdahlem and high graduate at Bitburg.

Regarding cash, I agree that this definitely has shifted with Covid. One of the main places I used to need cash was our local bakery, and they accept card now. And since our cafeteria at work started accepting cards this year also, I barely need cash anymore. But yes, this is mostly debit cards, not credit cards. Because of the fees this small businesses often feel like it's not worth it for them. We recently went to a countryside restaurant, where it was cash-only, and the only one who had enough cash on them was my dad^^ School subject: Geography all the way, but also Chemistry and History.

I always hated Physics and Chemistry and still do. Unlike maths, I could never wrap my head around them. Another explanation that I have heard for the German tendency to use cash is grounded in our history of Hyper Inflation and two dictatorships. The first made us hold on to money whenever it's possible, the second made us cautious (or paranoid?) of data protection.

In Germany you have to do your income tax declaration by July of the following year. If you have a tax consultant he may arrange for you to do it one year later.

Using cards only increases prices for everybody, as no business wants to pay the transaction fee out of THEIR own pocket.

Germans like me like to use the utility refund to save for something. You can raise your partly payment for electricity or with your landlord for gas ecetera by yourself. I know I get my electricity refund in October. So I payed all year a higher partly payment as necessary and use my refund for October for a yearly autumn vacation 😊

I have never used a card to pay for anything, and that will not change as long as I have the option to do so.

Do you use Einzugsermächtigungen to pay your bills? I think that's not customary in the USA. On the other side we don't use checks in Germany anymore but for Americans it's normal to pay with it.

Speaking about monthly salary is more common in europe...

How do US utitility companies charge by monthly usage ? Do they come around and read all your meters monthly ? Is everything already digital and read wireless ? I really can't imagine.

Where is Aubrey in all these videos. It was always nice seeing both of your perspectives

German system for paying utilities is better. You can "tune" your monthly rates quite conveniently.